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This months Daring Bakers challenge was chocolate eclairs. I have been wanting to try making chocolate eclairs for a while and making them for the Daring Bakers was the perfect opportunity. Chocolate eclairs consist of cream puff pastry or choux pastry, pastry cream and a chocolate glaze. The chocolate eclairs were pretty fun to make. The choux pastry was interesting as the dough is made on the stove top. The original recipe called for a chocolate pastry cream but I decided to go with a simple vanilla pastry cream. The chocolate eclairs turned out really well. The puff pastry was nice and light and airy and the pastry cream was cool and refreshing and full of vanilla goodness. They were a bit messy to eat but so good.

Chocolate Eclairs

Chocolate Eclairs

ingredients

cream puff pastry

chocolate glaze (warmed)

pastry cream

directions

Slice the eclairs in half horizontally with a serrated knife.

Place the tops on a rack above parchment paper.

Spread the glaze over the tops and allow the chocolate to set.

Fill the bottoms with pastry cream.

Place the set tops onto the bottoms and enjoy.

Cream Puffs (Choux Pastry)

ingredients

1/4 cup whole milk

1/4 cup water

1/2 stick unsalted butter (cut into 8 pieces)

1/8 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 eggs (room temperature)

directions

Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a roiling boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and mix in all of the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.

Continue to stir for 2-3 minutes. The dough will be soft and smooth.

Pour the dough into a bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time.

Form the dough into the desired shapes on parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake in a pre-heated 375F/190C oven and bake for 7 minutes.

Stick the handle of a wooden spoon into the oven door to hold it ajar and bake for another 5 minutes.

Rotate the baking sheet from front to back and bake for another 8 minutes or until the eclairs are puffed and golden brown. (With the door ajar.)

Let the eclairs cool for a few hours.

Pastry Cream

ingredients

1 cup whole milk

1 vanilla bean (sliced and seeds scraped)

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch (sifted)

1 1/4 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)

directions

Bring the milk and vanilla bean seeds to a boil in a saucepan.

Mix the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch in another sauce pan.

Temper the egg yolks and with the milk and combine.

Strain the mixture back into the sauce pan.

Bring the mixture to a boil while whisking and continue to whisk for a minute.

Transfer the cream to a bowl and set the bowl in an ice water bath to cool while still stirring.

Once the mixture has cooled some stir in the butter.

Return the bowl to the ice water bath and continue to stir until completely cooled.

Chocolate Sauce

ingredients

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons sugar

directions

Bring everything to a boil in a sauce pan while stirring.

Reduce the heat to low and continue stirring until the sauce thickens.

Never having made either choux pastry or pastry cream (mea culpa!!), I am totally in awe of your eclair efforts, Kevin. When I was a kid I used to list chocolate eclairs as my all-time favourite dessert, especially if they were filled with more chocolate cream :) Yours look fantastic, and you make them sound almost effortless.

Geez, I got out of the DBers at the wrong time, I would've been all over this recipe! Looks amazing, and I like that none of the ingredients are that unusual. Most people have all the stuff in their kitchen already, except maybe the vanilla bean.

I think I'm going to have to make these, but one quick questions: After you turn the pan of pastry around in the oven, it says to bake for another 5 minutes, but it doesn't say if the door should still be propped open or not. How did you do it?

Hi Kevin, ur eclairs look so good..it makes me feel like i cant resists to give it a go :) however, i have a question to ask for the pastry cream process "7. Once the mixture has cooled some stir in the one at a time." what should we stir in after the mixture has cooled? did we miss something here?

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About Me

I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.